86 PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



claim that they may, at least in part, be formed from the colorless 

 blood-corpuscles, while LOWIT claims that they are formed by the 

 withdrawal of globulin substance from the white blood-corpuscles. 

 BIZZOZERO and several other investigators consider the blood -tablets 

 as the starting-point for the coagulation of the blood, while ALEX. 

 SCHMIDT'S pupils deny this. LOWIT claims that the blood-tablets 

 are formed from globulin substance, and has therefore given them 

 the name globulin tablets. The relationship of these blood-tablets 

 to the fibrin coagulation will be spoken of shortly. 



III. The Blood as a Mixture of Plasma and Blood- 

 corpuscles. 



The blood in itself is a thick, sticky, lighter or darker red opaque 

 liquid having a salty taste and even in thin layers a faint odor dif- 

 fering in different kinds of animals. On the addition of sulphuric 

 acid to the blood the odor is more pronounced. In adult human 

 beings the specific gravity averages 1.055, ranging between 1.045 

 and 1.075. According to SCHERREKZISS the foetal blood has a lower 

 specific gravity than the blood of grown persons. LLOYD E. JOKES 

 found that the specific gravity is highest at birth and lowest in 

 children when about two years old and in pregnant women. 



The reaction of the blood is alkaline. The amount of alkali, 

 calculated as Na 2 C0 3 , is in the dog about 2 (ZUNTZ), in rabbits 

 about 2.5 (LASSAR), and in man 3.38-3.90 p. m. (v. JAKSCH). 

 The alkaline reaction diminishes outside of the body, and indeed 

 the more quickly the greater the original alkalinity of the blood. 

 This depends on the formation of acid in the blood, in which the 

 red blood-corpuscles seem to take part in some way or another. 

 After excessive muscular activity the alkalinity is diminished on 

 account of the formation of acid in the muscles, and it is also 

 decreased after the continuous use of acids (LASSAR). 



The color of the blood is red light scarlet-red in the arteries and 

 dark bluish-red in the veins. Blood free from oxygen is dichroitic, 

 dark red by reflected light, and green by transmitted light. The 

 blood-coloring matters occur in the blood-corpuscles. For this 

 reason blood is opaque in thin layers and acts as a " deckf arbe." 

 If the haemoglobin is removed from the stroma or dissolved from 



